Local

Students take part in Faraday Challenge

STUDENTS from Bromsgrove and Alvechurch are set to become real-life engineers for the day, as part of an event to showcase engineering as a careers.

Pupils from Catshill Middle School, St John’s Middle School and Alvechurch Middle School, will be joining youngsters at Aston Fields Middle School to research, design and build solutions to real engineering problems.

The day, which is taking place on Wednesday, January 22 has been organised as part of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Faraday Challenge Day, and Aston Fields Middle School is one of 45 schools across the country to act as hosts.

Six teams of students will spend the day racing against the clock to find the best solution for a secret engineering challenge.

Gareth James, head of education at IET, said: “Students who take part in the Faraday Challenge Days experience hands-on design and practical work giving them a peek into the life of a real engineer, the variety of engineering out there and the central role it plays in our everyday lives.

“There is huge demand for new engineers and technicians and we’re confident that this will challenge young people’s perceptions of engineers and hopefully make them consider engineering as a career choice.”

Each team member in the winning group will be given a prize and a trophy for their school, and the top three teams from across the UK will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the national final of the competition at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire next year, where they’ll be able to compete for a cash prize of up to £1,000 for their school.